VELVET THUNDER

We now come to Pyramaze album number six and, with just a little luck, this could be the record that launches the band to a stratospheric career for that is exactly what they deserve as their exciting and enticing progressive/power metal deserves to be heard throughout the world.

The band was formed in Denmark in 2001 and there have been several changes over the years so that they now line up with Terje Harøy on vocals, Jacob Hansen on guitar and bass, Toke Skjønnemand on guitars, Jonah Weingarten on keyboards and Morten Gade Sørensen on drums. The previous albums have all been darkly brooding progressive metal delights and very epic in nature too with superb guitar and wonderful vocals from, initially, Lance King, Matt Barlow and Urban Breed with Terje Harøy taking over in 2015 and most definitely now making the position his own.

Bloodlines is an accomplished and complex development on 2020’s Epitath and again sees the band in total mastery of the dark arts of complex progressive metal with the expected storming guitars backed up by pounding bass and drums with delicious keyboards being the counterpoint and effectively the soul of the band. The songs are epic in nature but not overlong with 5 minutes being the normal length so we do not see something like the 12-minute The Time Traveller that graced Epitath but Pyramaze has that unique knack of making each song sound long and complicated such is the level of songwriting and delivery they exhibit. The music is very much in the same territory of bands like Redemption and Evergrey combined with the power of Communic and Leprous to make a heady and all-encompassing rock that draws you into their world.

Pyramaze is another band that enjoys working with guests and have brought in guitarists Andrew Kingsley (Unleash The Archers) and Olof Mörck (Amaranthe) to add power and majesty to the track The Mystery and they also have Tim Hansen (son of Kai) offering up a solo on the track The Midnight Sin. The term Wall Of Sound may have been invented by Phil Spector but Pyramaze has definitely borrowed it and added extra power too! The guitars combine to perfection and this is another album where the musicians work together and show no interest in who can play the fastest or loudest as they put all of the emphasis on combining the power and might with a brooding portentousness that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Terje Harøy gives another faultless performance with a voice that always thrills and reminds just a little of Tom S Englund and he hasn’t done to badly for himself, has he?

If you like your progressive metal a little more cerebral then Pyramaze is the band for you and, if they are new to you, then you have a real joy ahead of you. Hopefully, this is the big one as everything is perfectly aligned with a perfect set of songs and a delivery that is off the scale, simply wonderful.